Monday, March 5, 2007

The F Word

Politics. A skeptical eye focusing on unemployment in America
From the book "Social Problems" by Robert Heiner:

"Defenders of the American economic system often point to the fact that unemployment rates in European countries today are considerably higher than in the United States, but cross-cultural comparisons of unemployment rates can be deceptive. Different countries calculate include "underemployed" contingent workers in their unemployment figures, whereas "Americans working a mere hour a week do not get counted as unemployed." Further, most countries require a person to be actively seeking employment to be included in the unemployment rate. In some European countries, a recent look through the job ads in a newspaper counts as an "active search," whereas in the United States, a person actually has to contact potential employers to be counted as actively searching for employment."



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